Jefferson Today: A Digital Future for the Founding Fathers

Want to know what Jefferson thought about a particular issue that continues to be relevant?  Well, you're in luck. Or you will be in a year or so, when a digital archive of the papers of the Founding Fathers becomes publicly accessible.

At Monticello, we've long been excited about the possibility and were very happy to see Patricia Cohen write expectantly in this past Sunday's ArtsBeat blog in the New York Times about the project, which will will include our own Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series. Archivist of the United States David S. Ferreiro states that it will "revolutionize our understanding" of the founding era and describes the decades-long effort of "dedicated editors and scholars" on the various papers projects as "a national monument to the founding of our nation."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves, but you can read yourself at http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/a-digital-future-for-the-founding-fathers/.